Posted on 03/08/2012 1:37:19 PM PST by mdittmar
Senators to Boehner on International Women’s Day: “Women are tired of being targets for a political strategy that endangers their health care and they want it to stop.”
“It’s time for you to put an end to the attacks on women’s health care and to work with the Senate to get back to the American people’s top priority: creating jobs and boosting our economy.”
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, all 12 Democratic women Senators sent a letter to House Speaker John Boehner calling on him to rescind his pledge to push forward with efforts to restrict women’s access to contraception after the Blunt amendment was defeated in the Senate. The Senator’s letter comes in the wake of Speaker Boehner’s public pledge to continue efforts to limit birth control access in the House, where a similar version of the Blunt amendment has over 200 co-sponsors. Speaker Boehner’s promise to continue fighting also comes despite a national outcry from women, the overwhelming majority of whom have used contraception at some point in their lifetime.
“We are asking that you abandon the promise you have made to bring legislation to the House floor similar to the Blunt amendment, which was defeated in the Senate last week, and which would turn the clock back on women’s access to health care,” the Senators wrote. “At a time when 99% of sexually active women in the U.S. have used birth control, its role in the lives of women and their families is hard to understate…. That is why the recent Republican attacks on birth control access have been so eye-opening for American women. For most American women, the battle over contraception was settled a half century ago.”
The letter was sent by U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
The full text of the Senator’s letter follows (PDF here):
Speaker Boehner,
We write to express our concerns over your recent statements pledging to continue efforts to put employers between American women and their access to birth control. Specifically, we are asking that you abandon the promise you have made to bring legislation to the House floor similar to the Blunt amendment, which was defeated in the Senate last week, and which would turn the clock back on women’s access to health care. Furthermore, we ask that you listen to the overwhelming outcry from American women who support access to contraception and drop all politically-charged efforts to deny them coverage.
Today, at a time when 99% of sexually active women in the U.S. have used birth control, its role in the lives of women and their families is hard to understate. Access to birth control is directly linked to declines in maternal and infant mortality, can reduce the risk of ovarian cancer, and is linked to overall good health outcomes. Nationwide, 1.5 million women use contraceptives only as treatment for serious medical conditions. And most importantly, access to birth control helps reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions, a goal we all share.
That is why the recent Republican attacks on birth control access have been so eye-opening for American women. For most American women, the battle over contraception was settled a half century ago. Yet, over the course of the past month alone, women have watched as panels on birth control have been convened without women, a young woman that dared to speak out in defense of birth control was subjected to vile name-calling, and extreme legislation, like the Blunt amendment, has been pushed to deny access.
Women have had enough. As we have heard from countless women in our home states and here on Capitol Hill, they are tired of being targets for a political strategy that endangers their health care and they want it to stop. We hope that you can answer their calls, and ours. It’s time for you to put an end to the attacks on women’s health care and to work with the Senate to get back to the American people’s top priority: creating jobs and boosting our economy.
As you may know, today is International Women’s Day, a day celebrated each year to mark the political, social, and economic progress women have made. We ask that on this day you join with us in working to ensure that we build on the progress of the past, not reverse it.
Sincerely,
U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Kay Hagan (D-NC), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
All political hacks and skanks to boot.
Good Lord! If you don’t like what’s in the bill, ladies, when it gets to your body (pun intended), don’t vote for it.
Otherwise, resign your seats and run for a seat in the House!
John Beohner, “you GCB illustrate why the 19th Amendment was a big mistake.”
>> That is why the recent Republican attacks on birth control access have been so eye-opening for American women.
Amazing how “accessibility” now means free.
More commies in the ranks of the Democrat party.
Otherwise known as the Dusty Puss Gang.
They haven't been used in a while and now they're angry!
Sounds a tad high, to be charitable about it. Perhaps that number includes women who use Natural Family Planning (watching the signs of their own fertility cycles), which is not artificial birth control—even though it's as reliable as the Pill. And possibly the figure also encompasses women who say, "No," which is the most effective pregnancy-avoidance method of all.
Or maybe I'm trying vainly to find some justification for these 12 valiant Senatrices when they're simply employing the usual Democratic woman's method of argumentation: lying.
That's quite characteristic of witches.
SLUTS UNITE... HEAR US ROAR!!!!
I have to admit that I enjoyed all of the bra burning fun back in the day....how else were those bimbos ever going to learn about gravity?? LOL
Oh how many lies:
1. “which would turn the clock back on women’s access to health care”. Huh? This would ‘turn back the clock’ to ONE MONTH AGO, when there was a conscience clause reflected in the law of the land, before Obama launched this war against religious freedom.
2. “efforts to put employers between American women and their access to birth control”. Another lie. Everyone would still have access to birth control. Affiliates of relgious institutions wouldn’t have to cover/pay for it against their will.
3. “listen to the overwhelming outcry from American women.” What overwhelming outcry? I’ve heard an outcry from the media and feminazis, but they don’t speak for American women generally.
4. “recent Republican attacks on birth control access”. Same lie as #2.
I gave up after 2 paragraphs.
That’s because they have pretty much gotten away with this up till now. Most other female-oriented health services (pap smears, mammograms, etc.) are now “free” to the patient because when insurance companies resisted they were demonized, set upon and rolled.
Why would they think it could not work again?
Contrived and ludicrous.
"Turn the clock back on women's access to health care"? Since when - since the day Fluke unleashed her little sideshow? That apparently marked the day that access to free birth control and abortion paid for by nuns and priests became the new standard for "women's access to health care".
The only thing that has changed since that day is the degree of foolish hyperbole assaulting our ears from these shrewish liberals. Women can still buy whatever they want at Walmart for a couple of bucks and nobody's stopping them.
Wake up ladies! Don't allow yourselves to be manipulated for votes in this cynical fashion.
If 10% of the population is homosexual (Kinsey) why would sexually active lesbian women need any birth control at all? Or did the Senatoresses forget how babies are made? The 98% Catholic claim received 2 "Pinnochios" from the liberal Washington Post.
The claim that 98 percent of Catholic women use contraception: a media foul
Boehner has weeped and given up on every other pledge the GOP has made, so the Democrat women are making a good bet here.
If these political whores were serious about jobs they would have voted for the Pipeline, the Dems just rejected it.
The contraception issue is THEIR Smokescreen.
I would like to ask Ms. Mikulski if she really thinks lesbian women need Birth Control.
She is an expert on lesbians.
How does one celebrate International Womens Day?
Apparently the Dems want to infringe on religious freedom.In this secular society we live in Catholic women need not hed the Church and are free to use birth control just as the Catholic Church was free not to provide insurance coverage for it until Obama was elected. The Dems want to create the false optics of a war vs women by Republicans rather than the reality of a war vs religion by the Dems.
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